This invention relates to a pattern position detecting apparatus for detecting the position of a specified pattern section of a particular pattern on an object.
In the manufacture of an IC (Integrated Circuit), the IC wafer is cut into a plurality of IC chips and bonding is carried out to the IC chip, so it is necessary to detect the cutting or bonding position. Conventionally, this position detection is carried out as follows. A pattern region including the pattern to be detected is photographed by, for example, an industrial television camera. The pattern image signal from the television camera is degitalized and stored in a memory. The pattern data corresponding to a specified region are sequentially read out from this memory while they are shifted bit by bit. The read out pattern section data are compared with a reference pattern corresponding to the pattern to be detected. In this comparison, the degree of coincidence between the read out pattern section data and the reference pattern data is detected and, from the memory address for the pattern data having the highest degree of coincidence the pattern position corresponding to this pattern data is detected.
However, since in the above-mentioned conventional pattern position detecting apparatus, the position detecting operation is carried out while the pattern section data are shifted bit by bit, a large amount of time is required for position detection. For example, where the pattern section data are composed of 64.times.64 bits and the stored pattern data are composed of 128.times.128 bits, the number of interruptions between the pattern section data and the reference pattern data concerned is 64.times.64.times.65.times.65=17,305,600. As can be seen, a considerable amount of time is required for the position detection.